image of actor Sean Bean in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Helen Sloan

image of actor Sean Bean in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Helen Sloan

Photo: HELEN SLOAN

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image of actor Richard Madden in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Nick Briggs

image of actor Richard Madden in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Nick Briggs

Photo: Nick Briggs/ +447778646602/nick@

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image of actor Peter Dinklage in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Helen Sloan

image of actor Peter Dinklage in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Helen Sloan

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image of actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Kit Harington in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Helen Sloan

image of actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Kit Harington in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Helen Sloan

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image of the Northern wall from the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: HBO

image of the Northern wall from the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: HBO

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image from the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Helen Sloan

image from the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Helen Sloan

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image of King's Landing from the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: HBO

image of King's Landing from the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: HBO

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image of Winterfell from the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: HBO

image of Winterfell from the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: HBO

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In this publicity image released by HBO, Mark Addy portrays King Robert Baratheon in a scene from the HBO series "Game of Thrones," premiering Sunday, April 17, 2011. (AP Photo/HBO, Helen Sloan)

In this publicity image released by HBO, Mark Addy portrays King Robert Baratheon in a scene from the HBO series "Game of Thrones," premiering Sunday, April 17, 2011. (AP Photo/HBO, Helen Sloan)

Photo: Helen Sloan, HOEP

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image of actor Maisie Williams in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Nick Briggs

image of actor Maisie Williams in the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Nick Briggs

Photo: Nick Nick Briggs+447778646602/ni

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image of writer George R.R. Martin author of the book that informed the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Nick Briggs

image of writer George R.R. Martin author of the book that informed the HBO series Game of Thrones credit: Nick Briggs

Photo: Nick Briggs

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'Game of Thrones' series goes beyond fantasy

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A Game of Thrones was a bracing read when it was published in 1996, a sprawling tale typically filed under fantasy, though its lofty ambition and bare-knuckled storytelling was such that the term 'fantasy' failed it by sounding so airy.

Author George R.R. Martin, having spent years writing small for TV with its accompanying constraints, granted himself a certain freedom with AGOT, the first volume in his projected seven-book A Song of Ice and Fire series. To his credit, his big tale was built from smaller efficient parts. Funny, then, that a TV network, HBO, had the vision to bring Game of Thrones (more efficiency: they lost the "A") to TV with minimal alteration.

The 10-part series begins Sunday. Should it prove successful, three additional Ice and Fire books have been published, with the fifth due this summer. The key to the series is whether it can reach beyond the book's feverish following. Six-figure sales make a book into a strong best-seller. Six-figure viewership can doom a multi-million dollar TV series.

To HBO's credit, the series shouldn't cause great offense to any but the most unwavering of readers. There are minor condensed portions and some of the narrative has been shuffled from its original sequence. Some ages have been nudged up a few years, and a few physical characteristics have been modified. The most problematic obstacle is that some backstory so crucial to understanding the tale, which was described vividly on the page, can only be alluded to on screen in bits of dialog. Newcomers might have to summon some patience, as the first two episodes ask them to learn a lot (keeping HBO's cast list on hand with an iPad isn't a bad idea). The payoff comes in the fourth through sixth episodes, which, simply put, are gripping television.

My history with A Game of Thrones goes back to my first job out of college, working as an editorial assistant with Martin's editor at Bantam books. Among an assistant's most urgent functions is probably the least interesting: the Xeroxing of manuscripts. The larger, the dearier, and Martin's for A Game of Thrones was formidable.

The book has had an interesting run. Those involved in its publication knew it was special, and it was treated so. Rather than a typical sword- and horse-populated cover befitting an epic fantasy it was sheathed in foil with its titular throne embossed on the front. Still, upon its release the book was met coldly. For a time I used excess hardcover copies to prop up my computer monitor; today, in good condition, they sometimes sell for hundreds of dollars.

The throne motif was carried over to the book's paperback, but it was downplayed for a more traditional fantasy painting of a man astride a horse. The book then began to find readers. Martin's series has since become a worldwide best-seller.

This background speaks to one of the challenges facing its televised counterpart. Fantasy, like crime fiction, has spent the entirety of its existence marginalized as entertainment rather than art. Also, GOT's narrative, when summarized, has a daunting tone. So as to not get mired in too many names, the most basic of descriptions of the book and show concern themselves with the post-war defense of a shaky kingdom. There's conniving and conspiring that threatens to undo it from within. There are also dangers from the east (primal) and the cold north (mysterious) that threaten it from the outside.

If this all sounds like Lord of the Rings, rest assured that beyond armor, sharp objects, Sean Bean and the use of horse as transport, it's not. GOT is decidedly more carnal and cruel. And if there exists in Martin's mind a figure that could be Christ-like, he or she has not yet been encountered. His worst are, to pooch from Yeats, full of passionate intensity. His best do not lack all conviction, but they often possess a sense of resignation or self-defeat. There is, thus far in the cycle, no pure-hearted savior on a quest. And speaking of quests, the narrative is anything but linear, but rather a series of actions and decisions that function like disparate weather elements. Ultimately they will converge and create a storm.

Martin's world of Westeros is a cynical one, fitting of a land where winter can last years. Those who value justice greatly will find it terrifying and disheartening. One execution in the book was the first time a piece of fiction had left me feeling helpless. Martin wants the stakes high. He wants a reader, and now a viewer, to know that any character is only one page or one scene from termination. TV shows like Lost (which borrowed Martin's idea of a mysterious and frightening the Others) and The Sopranos for years applied a similar principle.

Proximity to the truth, in Westeros, is often proximity to danger. "Some day you will sit on the throne and the truth will be what you make of it," one character says to another.

As told by the TV show's creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Game of Thrones should hold appeal to the viewer seeking something chewier than perceived flights of fancy. Whether Martin intended his story as allegory or not, it speaks to times of conflict in the past (significant inspiration rests in the Wars of the Roses) and has taken on a prescient tone thanks to tumultuous times that have ensued since it was published. In this way the TV show also recalls, in less obvious ways, the Baltimore of The Wire and the New Jersey of The Sopranos In a more base way it can, like True Blood, be viewed for the titillation it offers in copious bloodshed and sex. Though True Blood's viewership was also drawn to the show because it speaks to the times, sometimes humorously, with power struggles and people making decisions that result in death, lots of it.

It sounds cold because it is cold. The oft-repeated house motto for one family summarizes it better than I can: "Winter is coming."